Archive for February, 2011

I know some of you have been waiting a while. But we’ll be opening our doors soon to the Hippo Academy. It’s taken me longer than expected because it’s going to be much more than I originally planned.

This week I’m creating video training and posting it. That way, once you get in, it will be waiting for you. But we’re not stopping there. Being a Hippo Academy member will get you some other pretty cool perks.

We’re not open quite yet, but will be soon.

PS: If it sounds interesting to you, feel free to visit Hippo Academy now and leave your email address to stay informed.

You know me. I’m a small business owner, consultant, trainer, and entrepreneur. I’m also an Internet marketer at heart.

But I’m also a stickler for not wasting time. I feel very deeply that how you use your time is critical to the success of your business (and of your life in general).

Given this, I’m not always the first to get excited about social media. Facebook, Twitter, and other similar tools are fun and interesting. But they can very easily be a total waste of time. So it’s a constant challenge to know how much time I should spend with them. (And by extension, how much I should recommend using them to my students and clients.)

Up until now, I’ve mostly spent a little time here and there in Facebook and Twitter just to be informed, experiment, and stay in touch with those that know me. But with the new features in Facebook this week, I’m making some changes.

In case you have not heard, Facebook made some changes to the way Pages work. Most of them were no big deal and mostly cosmetic. My colleague (and Social Media Speaker) over at Social Fresh made a little video that shows you the 7 changes here.

What’s the big deal?

The one change you need to note is the last one. Namely, you can now use Facebook as a person (yourself) or as a page (brand). This means you can now follow other pages and comment on them as your company or brand.

For those that have worked in Internet marketing for some time, you know this is huge, right? For a year or two now, anyone that wants to build attention and get noticed online has realized that commenting on blogs absolutely rocks. You can now do something very similar using Facebook.

Of course, writing in your own blog is important. This is similar to creating and growing your business as a Page on Facebook. Good idea! Once you have followers, it keeps them engaged and coming back.

But if you are starting out, how do you get people to come to your blog? Advertising works. But it costs. SEO works, but it takes time and links. So the magic bullet was to go find the relevant blogs in your industry. Find the ones that already have the attention of your target audience and comment intelligently on those blogs.

Now we can do that on Facebook! We know it works, because people have already been doing it. You know who the people with the most followers and friends are on Facebook and Twitter? The most active and interesting people.

Now, businesses and brands can do the same thing.

What should you do?

Game on, people! If you don’t have a Facebook Page for your business, now’s the time to get started. (Even just building something quick and easy gets you started.)

But the real trick is to “Use Facebook as your page”. Then go “Like” the businesses that already have the attention of your target audience and start commenting intelligently on those pages.

Of course, if your page has a good call to action, you’ll get more likes too!